Hi all

We have been talking on and off about rural internships and soon you will be seeing posters etc about them around in campus too and so thought should write a bit about them to all of you.

Rural internships are an exposure oppurtunity that we offer in the summer for young people to go to a rural community and intern with a local organisation working on an issue you are passionate about. We at SMILE strongly believe in experiential learning where the world is your classroom and you chart your own learning journey and that is the basic theme behind these internships.
It's a 4-6 weeks long internship oppurtunity. We have partners in rural areas across India who work on various issues and before placing anyone with an organisation we do match expectations from you as well as the hosting organisation to ensure that you are placed with an organisation you would like to work with.

This internship is an oppurtunity for you to get hands on experience working in an environment you may not be familiar with, hone your skills, get work experience of a different kind, push your limits and come out of your comfort zone adapting to a new life and
make a difference.

What does the summer broadly look like if you are interning with us....

In the first half of May we will be conducting an orientation camp which will be compulsory for all those doing internships this year. This will ideally be a 4 day camp held somewhere outside of Delhi. This camp essentially looks at building capacities in certain soft skills, like assertiveness and conflict resolution, which we feel would come in use during your internships. The camp would also be an important space to share expectations and preview what is in store for you to ensure you are well prepared and an oppurtunity to get to know other fellow travellers on this journey.

Post the orientation camp each one can decide when in the next few months you will be doing your internship and figure your travel and other logistics.

In the second half of July (ideally by when everyone should be back from their internships) we will hold a feedback camp which will also be a compulsory component of the internship as its important for us that experiences are documented and shared. It will also be a space to plan forward for your action projects as each one is supposed to take on one post their internship and touch base with all other travellers and so we can be a part of more than one journey even if we haven't been on all.

We firmly believe that learning is not complete if its not actually used in some way which ensures internalisation of all that one has gathered. With this faith the next component of the internship is an action project which everyone has to do once you are back in Delhi. Now action projects are basically forums to share your learnings or do a small project with them once you are back in Delhi. these action projects are really dependent on what you want to do. It's a great space to get thinking out of the box and do something fun.

What are the costs involved....

The basic costs for travel, lodging and food from past years of experience works out to be upto Rs. 4500. For core group intensive SMILE volunteers we ask you to contribute Rs. 2000 and the over and above is covered by Pravah. For all others who are applying for internship we ask you to contribute Rs. 3000 and the over and above is covered by us.
Apart from this we also offer bursaries and there are possibilities for fundraising for those who may find it difficult to come up with the given amount of money. So lets talk about it...

What is the process like?
Write in to us immediately if you would like to apply. There isn't a selection procedure per se but there are certain assessment parameters with which we make our recommendations on whether you are prepared for the internship right away or might want to consider doing it next year.
Please be prepared to come in to meet us sometime during the next two months (before the orientation) so we can talk about the process further and get to know each other and the program better before the orientation camp.

So this is what it broadly looks like please write in to us if you have any queries. To apply for the program please visit our website younginfluencers.com where an aplication form willl be put up shortly and do just call or let us know that you are interested so we can talk further.

Well, hoping to hear from you soon.

To find out more contact the SMILE team at Pravah

@ 26440619 or 26213918 or 26291354

Posted in: Rural Internship - 08 on Thursday, March 6, 2008 at at 6:11 PM